Farrar, Petacchi, Greipel and Guardini for Presidential Tour of Turkey

Sprint rivals Tyler Farrar, Alessandro Petacchi, André Gripel, Andrea Guardini, Kenny Van Hummel and Allan Davis will have a real head-to-head this month in the Presidential Tour of Turkey, enabling them to see precisely how they compare to each other in the run up to the Grand Tours.

Thanks to a two week delay in the date of running the event, a higher standard field is anticipated for this year’s edition of the race, which will begin on Sunday April 24th. The new timeslot enables those who rode the Northern Classics to have sufficient recovery, while also syncing with the programme of those building up for the Giro d’Italia

There will also be 14 Pro Continental teams, as well as two new Continental teams from Turkey: Team Manisaspor and Konya-Torku Seker Spor-Vivelo.

The Pro Continental teams including the Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli team of Guardini, who in his debut pro season has already clocked up five stage wins in the Tour de Langkawi and one in the Tour of Qatar. The 21 year old is regarded as the most exciting young sprinter on the block, and will be keen to notch up another win or two in the 2.HC-ranked event. His team-mate Giovanni Visconti won last year, and so the team know what it takes to succeed in the race.

The race begins on Sunday April 24 with a 121 kilometre stage starting and finishing in Istanbul. The most difficult leg will be stage four from Marmaris to Pamukkale, where the GC contenders will slug it out over 209 kilometres. Aside from being mountains, the stage is also the second longest of the race, with only the fifth leg to Fethiye exceeding this distance.